New mural at Central Square Library celebrates learning

Tuesday

Sep 10, 2019 at 10:00 AM

Cambridge’s Central Square Branch Library will be home to a new mural by Boston-based artist Silvia López Chavez celebrating the ways libraries serve communities.

Chavez was commissioned by the Central Square Business Association/Business Improvement District in partnership with the Cambridge Public Library, Cambridge Arts and the city’s Traffic, Parking and Transportation Department.

Chavez’s design features books, flying birds and pages turning into paper planes, all set against a backdrop of bold stripes of color. The 240-foot-long and 20-foot-tall mural will span the length of Pearl Street between Green Street and Franklin Street in Cambridge and turn onto part of Franklin Street. Work on the project is expected to continue through early September.

The library painting is part of the Central MURALS program, a collaboration between the Central Square Business Association, the Central Square BID, Central Square Cultural District and Cambridge Arts to create new murals in high-profile locations along the Massachusetts Avenue Corridor.

The program was inspired by the 10th anniversary of Central Square’s Graffiti Alley, a legal graffiti wall along Modica Way that has attracted artists from Cambridge, the region and from around the world. The murals are also a way to showcase and celebrate the rich character, history and culture of Central Square, which received another five-year designation as a Cultural District from the state of Massachusetts last year and was designated a Business Improvement District.

Part of the Pearl Street wall had been home to Daniel Galvez’s 1986 mural “Crossroads,” celebrating the diversity and cultural vibrancy of Central Square. The mural was restored twice. It was deaccessioned and removed in consultation with the artist and a public process involving the Cambridge Public Art Commission. A new plaque remembering Galvez’s artwork will be added to the building.